...Which brings up an interesting point; if you remember the dialogue between 3PO and Luke in ANH, C-3PO and R2-D2 were *not* owned by Leia, they were owned by a "Captain Antilles". A relative of Wedge? Or of "Bail Antilles", who was in the running for Supreme Chancellor in Ep. I?
I'm curious to see how the droids part ways with Anakin/Padmé and wind up involved with the Rebellion years down the line.
Just a thought.... but Tolkien's estate might have something to say about Jackson perverting JRR's works. At least, more than he already has (there was a grand total of ONE FRIGGIN' ELF at Helm's Deep in TTT for chrissakes!!! [rant off]).
That's the thing about one bringing substance to another's vision: no Lucasing after the fact without one HELL of a legal battle. The Minas Tirith of all legal battles, if you will.
...women with CompSci degrees != women in IT. I've worked with many members of the female persuasion over the years, and only one was even pursuing a CS degree (and only part-time, at that).
[rant on] On a more general note, I'm getting a little tired of the IT industry equating education to knowledge. As I'm sure many/.ers will agree, there are a lot of folks in IT right now, who have varying degrees of education and certification, who know jack shit about the IT topic at hand; while others, such as myself, who have little formal education in the field, but who have plenty of experience, and still get turned away from dream jobs in excellent companies, simply because we don't have a few letters after our names. [end rant]
SLI, as 3dfx implemented it, had one of the paired cards render one scan line, then the other card render the next scan line while the first read in data in order to be ready to render the third scan line, and so on (this the term, Scan Line Interleave). I may be wrong, and mea culpa if I am reading your comment wrong, but you are thinking about the two cards sharing the workload in order to render the entire screen at once. This was not the case with SLI.
I haven't had time (or inclination - I'm happy for now with my AGP Radeon) to read up too much on the new method of combining video cards to render, but I seem to recall hearing that Alienware was working on a way to use two cards to render a frame, but instead of the scan-line interleave of the Voodoo2 method, each of the paired cards would render half of the screen (e.g. card 1 would render from line 1 to the middle of the frame, and card 2 would render from the following line to the very bottom of the frame). This makes sense to me: you bypass synchronization issues that Voodoo2s were prone to at the end of the useful life of the product line (once the software far exceeded what the hardware could do), and you can theoretically double the performance, since each card only has to do half the work it would have to do on its' own.
The downside would be that if one card is slightly out of spec, overheating or generally misbehaving, then you could have frames that look *really* bad, or you'd have to have some sync method in place, which would cut down on the benefit gained from separating the processing/rendering (but still better than just one card alone).
Anyone have any details? Is this going to be a generic PCI-X thing, or is it specific to nVIDIA?
But, when someone is murdered with a gun/knife/car, there's frequently some evidence that a specific person comitted the crime.
The problem that the industries concerned (RIAA, MPAA, the porn industry, software companies, etc.) and the judicial systems around the world have to face is, there's rarely - if ever - proof of who did what online. Sure, you have an IP, but most often those IPs are doled out by DHCP, or can be spoofed; sure, you have a MAC address, but MACs can be spoofed, changed or cloned. Sure, you can have someone give out personally-identifying information, but that information can be forged or stolen.
So what do they have left? No real, conclusive proof of the identity of the perpetrator. I understand where they guys are all coming from. No, I don't agree with their approach or their attitudes. There has to be a middle ground somewhere; the real question is, who's going to find it, how long is it going to take to catch on, and how much will it cost Joe Sixpack?
...when the AGs send a letter telling P2P software-producing companies to educate their users, when they themselves aren't fully educated on the subject.
Choice quote (page 2 of the AGs' letter): "Furthermore, P2P file-sharing technology can allow its users to access the files of other
users, even when the computer is "off" if the computer itself is connected to the Internet via
broadband." They've made a dangerous generalization; for this statement to be true, your PC has to have Wake-On-LAN turned on, no login restriction (straight to the desktop), and the P2P client set to start and connect automatically.
Same page, same paragraph: "Consequently, P2P users need to be properly educated so that they will not
inadvertently share personal files on their hard drives with other users of your P2P file-sharing
technology." Sorry, but these folks need to follow their own advice, and get some education on the topic. With all the P2P clients I've used (and granted, I haven't tried every one of them out there), you are limited to downloading to, and sharing from, a single, default folder with nothing in it (except perhaps a copy of the P2P software itself - I believe Limewire does this).
I'd like to read more of the letter, but I really don't have time for lobbyist-supported government/legal correspondence.
It is obvious that Dark-MAY-O is a commie traitor, since he would rather take pity and "re-educate" (whatever that is) a fellow Commie Mutant Traitor. Friend Computer clearly says that all CMTs are to be executed upon identification as a CMT.
Please remain still as the Destruct-O-Ray cannons lock onto you. Attempting to flee is treason, punishible by death.
As per another reply, you must have purchased some really low-quality, ultra-bargain DVD players.
Not to say that the problem doesn't exist; before I bought a stand-alone DVD player, certain DVDs would stop playing in my PS2 at layer-switch time, if I had the PS2 sitting vertically. Most would resume from the 'failure' point if I set the PS2 down in the horizontal position. But there is still one disc - Attack of the Clones - that will always fail at that point whenever played in the PS2 in either position. Works just fine in my standalone, though.
You're probably right, it would get the company into a lot of hot water.
I'm too lazy to go back and read the article, now that I'm posting a comment - did they actually close down, or did they declare bankruptcy? If the former, then the "owners" of the company still have control over the assets; if the latter, then all outstanding debts will be paid with existing assets, as I understand the process.
In either case, though, wouldn't it be a shame if a copy of the code suddenly showed up on P2P? Source or binary libraries would be best, since Joe Sixpack couldn't just go and download, then use it; but some some smart cookie could link the pieces into a F/OSS package.
Call me a Star Wars fanboy if you must, but Dark Forces is the first "classic" game that comes to mind (after the obvious ones and those already stated, like the Doom and Quake series, and Half-Life).
A good storyline, dovetails with the Star Wars mythos nicely, with some special guest appearances that made me grin. Plus, it was most satisfying to finally beat the final boss.
Keith Richards did so much coke and heroin and other junk over the years, that if he were to be cremated, most of the population surrounding the crematorium would die from overdosing on the fumes.
Those that didn't, would probably rush in to snort the ashes.
You are correct, I probably could have rewired the tube amp, but as I mentioned in another reply, I had a brand-new [Fender] transistor amp at home; I only brought the tube amp that night because I considered it disposable.
That, and I was lazy then (well, more so back then than now).
In thinking about it now, I don't know why that tube-based amp chose that particular moment to shock me; I had used it at least a dozen times before in other locations (wearing shoes and without shoes on), including at least once in the same spot. Wierd.
You're probably right, but meh... I was a lazy teenaged metalhead then, and paid a grand total of zero for the tube amp (with a brand-spaking new transistor amp at home). I brought the tube amp along that night because it was smaller than the new one, and I wouldn't have minded if it got bashed around on the public transit system.
I guess that would depend on the type/model/manufacturer of the self-checkout kiosk; with the ones that Dominion and Zehr's use (don't know the manufacturer), scanning the UPCs does not require putting the individual item on the scale/scanner.
However, I just realized that you may indeed be right; the area where you put the items into bags is also weighed (if you don't put an item in a bag, or if you remove one, the kiosk knows and will bitch about it).
I guess it boils down to how well the store's product database has been populated, if they bothered to put all the weights in for each UPC.
Years ago, I had an old, vacuum-tube guitar amplifier given to me. Wonderful sound, great distortion when set to the right volume/tone.
One New Year's Eve, I had gone to a buddy's place to jam, since he had a drum set in the basement of his place. We had played a set of pretty cool tunes, and decided that it was time to take a break and go for some beverages.
I put my left hand over the strings to mute them, as I reached out with my right to flip the power toggle. Next thing I know, I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, and my vision is rapidly darkening, when my buddy kicked the guitar from my hands and I collapsed onto the concrete floor.
As you may have guessed, the amp wasn't properly grounded, but my bare feet on a concrete basement floor must have been a great natural ground. My screaming was for someone to get the f***ing axe off me.
Needless to say, after I stopped shaking, the amp went into the nearest Dumpster.
Says who? Most, if not all, of the larger grocery stores (at least, up here in Canada) have self-checkout stations, where you scan your own purchases and pay for them all by yourself.
Unless there's a problem getting a particular item to scan, you can go through the whole process without speaking to a store employee once.
If you're going to go changing the bar codes, though, you can't make it too obvious; they might clue in that the $25 package of steaks should not be scanning in as $0.49 green onions.
I had a couple of dentists who let me bring my own music, and one of them even had a walkman-type tape deck in case you didn't want to bring your own.
This solved many problems at once: you didn't have to listen to the dentist and the assistant nattering away; you didn't have to hold a one-way conversation with the dentist, answering with "agghh" and "nuuuuuuhhnn" to their questions; you didn't have to listen to the drill, if you turned the volume up enough; it helped the time go faster; and you didn't have to put up with "The Abosolute Best of Celine Dion's Farewell and Comeback Tour"!
I only wish I could slip the headphones on during some of the meetings I've had lately. It'd sole a similar set of problems.
Slashdot Mirror
...Which brings up an interesting point; if you remember the dialogue between 3PO and Luke in ANH, C-3PO and R2-D2 were *not* owned by Leia, they were owned by a "Captain Antilles". A relative of Wedge? Or of "Bail Antilles", who was in the running for Supreme Chancellor in Ep. I?
I'm curious to see how the droids part ways with Anakin/Padmé and wind up involved with the Rebellion years down the line.
[geek mode off]
Just a thought.... but Tolkien's estate might have something to say about Jackson perverting JRR's works. At least, more than he already has (there was a grand total of ONE FRIGGIN' ELF at Helm's Deep in TTT for chrissakes!!! [rant off]).
That's the thing about one bringing substance to another's vision: no Lucasing after the fact without one HELL of a legal battle. The Minas Tirith of all legal battles, if you will.
From the article: "Critics contend that Forgent is typical of small companies trying to enforce patents because their core business is failing..."
I almost laughed my balls off. (emphasis mine)
...women with CompSci degrees != women in IT. I've worked with many members of the female persuasion over the years, and only one was even pursuing a CS degree (and only part-time, at that).
/.ers will agree, there are a lot of folks in IT right now, who have varying degrees of education and certification, who know jack shit about the IT topic at hand; while others, such as myself, who have little formal education in the field, but who have plenty of experience, and still get turned away from dream jobs in excellent companies, simply because we don't have a few letters after our names. [end rant]
[rant on] On a more general note, I'm getting a little tired of the IT industry equating education to knowledge. As I'm sure many
Hang on a sec - didn't Adaptec spin the software unit off and create Roxio? Or am I remembering things wrong?
SLI, as 3dfx implemented it, had one of the paired cards render one scan line, then the other card render the next scan line while the first read in data in order to be ready to render the third scan line, and so on (this the term, Scan Line Interleave). I may be wrong, and mea culpa if I am reading your comment wrong, but you are thinking about the two cards sharing the workload in order to render the entire screen at once. This was not the case with SLI.
I haven't had time (or inclination - I'm happy for now with my AGP Radeon) to read up too much on the new method of combining video cards to render, but I seem to recall hearing that Alienware was working on a way to use two cards to render a frame, but instead of the scan-line interleave of the Voodoo2 method, each of the paired cards would render half of the screen (e.g. card 1 would render from line 1 to the middle of the frame, and card 2 would render from the following line to the very bottom of the frame). This makes sense to me: you bypass synchronization issues that Voodoo2s were prone to at the end of the useful life of the product line (once the software far exceeded what the hardware could do), and you can theoretically double the performance, since each card only has to do half the work it would have to do on its' own.
The downside would be that if one card is slightly out of spec, overheating or generally misbehaving, then you could have frames that look *really* bad, or you'd have to have some sync method in place, which would cut down on the benefit gained from separating the processing/rendering (but still better than just one card alone).
Anyone have any details? Is this going to be a generic PCI-X thing, or is it specific to nVIDIA?
But, when someone is murdered with a gun/knife/car, there's frequently some evidence that a specific person comitted the crime.
The problem that the industries concerned (RIAA, MPAA, the porn industry, software companies, etc.) and the judicial systems around the world have to face is, there's rarely - if ever - proof of who did what online. Sure, you have an IP, but most often those IPs are doled out by DHCP, or can be spoofed; sure, you have a MAC address, but MACs can be spoofed, changed or cloned. Sure, you can have someone give out personally-identifying information, but that information can be forged or stolen.
So what do they have left? No real, conclusive proof of the identity of the perpetrator. I understand where they guys are all coming from. No, I don't agree with their approach or their attitudes. There has to be a middle ground somewhere; the real question is, who's going to find it, how long is it going to take to catch on, and how much will it cost Joe Sixpack?
...when the AGs send a letter telling P2P software-producing companies to educate their users, when they themselves aren't fully educated on the subject.
Choice quote (page 2 of the AGs' letter): "Furthermore, P2P file-sharing technology can allow its users to access the files of other users, even when the computer is "off" if the computer itself is connected to the Internet via broadband." They've made a dangerous generalization; for this statement to be true, your PC has to have Wake-On-LAN turned on, no login restriction (straight to the desktop), and the P2P client set to start and connect automatically.
Same page, same paragraph: "Consequently, P2P users need to be properly educated so that they will not inadvertently share personal files on their hard drives with other users of your P2P file-sharing technology." Sorry, but these folks need to follow their own advice, and get some education on the topic. With all the P2P clients I've used (and granted, I haven't tried every one of them out there), you are limited to downloading to, and sharing from, a single, default folder with nothing in it (except perhaps a copy of the P2P software itself - I believe Limewire does this).
I'd like to read more of the letter, but I really don't have time for lobbyist-supported government/legal correspondence.
Grrrr.
It is obvious that Dark-MAY-O is a commie traitor, since he would rather take pity and "re-educate" (whatever that is) a fellow Commie Mutant Traitor. Friend Computer clearly says that all CMTs are to be executed upon identification as a CMT.
Please remain still as the Destruct-O-Ray cannons lock onto you. Attempting to flee is treason, punishible by death.
As per another reply, you must have purchased some really low-quality, ultra-bargain DVD players.
Not to say that the problem doesn't exist; before I bought a stand-alone DVD player, certain DVDs would stop playing in my PS2 at layer-switch time, if I had the PS2 sitting vertically. Most would resume from the 'failure' point if I set the PS2 down in the horizontal position. But there is still one disc - Attack of the Clones - that will always fail at that point whenever played in the PS2 in either position. Works just fine in my standalone, though.
You're probably right, it would get the company into a lot of hot water.
I'm too lazy to go back and read the article, now that I'm posting a comment - did they actually close down, or did they declare bankruptcy? If the former, then the "owners" of the company still have control over the assets; if the latter, then all outstanding debts will be paid with existing assets, as I understand the process.
In either case, though, wouldn't it be a shame if a copy of the code suddenly showed up on P2P? Source or binary libraries would be best, since Joe Sixpack couldn't just go and download, then use it; but some some smart cookie could link the pieces into a F/OSS package.
Yeah, wouldn't that be a shame?
Hear, hear! My first PC game.
There's an updated, 3D-rendered version/spinoff/clone called "Warheads", 'free' version available here.
It's Scorched Earth, with 3D graphics, movement in two dimensions, and planetary gravity to contend with. Wasted many hours with this gem.
Call me a Star Wars fanboy if you must, but Dark Forces is the first "classic" game that comes to mind (after the obvious ones and those already stated, like the Doom and Quake series, and Half-Life).
A good storyline, dovetails with the Star Wars mythos nicely, with some special guest appearances that made me grin. Plus, it was most satisfying to finally beat the final boss.
I think "Bat-Rig" would work better in dialogue.
Also, maybe "Bat-Crusher"? "Bat-Truck" and "Bat-SUV" just sound so hokey.
Then again, we *are* talking about Batman in the post-Schumacher era, so I'm going to hedge my bets here.
I'm pretty sure that this is not the case.
Keith Richards did so much coke and heroin and other junk over the years, that if he were to be cremated, most of the population surrounding the crematorium would die from overdosing on the fumes.
Those that didn't, would probably rush in to snort the ashes.
You are correct, I probably could have rewired the tube amp, but as I mentioned in another reply, I had a brand-new [Fender] transistor amp at home; I only brought the tube amp that night because I considered it disposable.
That, and I was lazy then (well, more so back then than now).
In thinking about it now, I don't know why that tube-based amp chose that particular moment to shock me; I had used it at least a dozen times before in other locations (wearing shoes and without shoes on), including at least once in the same spot. Wierd.
You're probably right, but meh... I was a lazy teenaged metalhead then, and paid a grand total of zero for the tube amp (with a brand-spaking new transistor amp at home). I brought the tube amp along that night because it was smaller than the new one, and I wouldn't have minded if it got bashed around on the public transit system.
I guess that would depend on the type/model/manufacturer of the self-checkout kiosk; with the ones that Dominion and Zehr's use (don't know the manufacturer), scanning the UPCs does not require putting the individual item on the scale/scanner.
However, I just realized that you may indeed be right; the area where you put the items into bags is also weighed (if you don't put an item in a bag, or if you remove one, the kiosk knows and will bitch about it).
I guess it boils down to how well the store's product database has been populated, if they bothered to put all the weights in for each UPC.
Years ago, I had an old, vacuum-tube guitar amplifier given to me. Wonderful sound, great distortion when set to the right volume/tone.
One New Year's Eve, I had gone to a buddy's place to jam, since he had a drum set in the basement of his place. We had played a set of pretty cool tunes, and decided that it was time to take a break and go for some beverages.
I put my left hand over the strings to mute them, as I reached out with my right to flip the power toggle. Next thing I know, I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, and my vision is rapidly darkening, when my buddy kicked the guitar from my hands and I collapsed onto the concrete floor.
As you may have guessed, the amp wasn't properly grounded, but my bare feet on a concrete basement floor must have been a great natural ground. My screaming was for someone to get the f***ing axe off me.
Needless to say, after I stopped shaking, the amp went into the nearest Dumpster.
Says who? Most, if not all, of the larger grocery stores (at least, up here in Canada) have self-checkout stations, where you scan your own purchases and pay for them all by yourself.
Unless there's a problem getting a particular item to scan, you can go through the whole process without speaking to a store employee once.
If you're going to go changing the bar codes, though, you can't make it too obvious; they might clue in that the $25 package of steaks should not be scanning in as $0.49 green onions.
Uh.... "solve."
I had a couple of dentists who let me bring my own music, and one of them even had a walkman-type tape deck in case you didn't want to bring your own. This solved many problems at once: you didn't have to listen to the dentist and the assistant nattering away; you didn't have to hold a one-way conversation with the dentist, answering with "agghh" and "nuuuuuuhhnn" to their questions; you didn't have to listen to the drill, if you turned the volume up enough; it helped the time go faster; and you didn't have to put up with "The Abosolute Best of Celine Dion's Farewell and Comeback Tour"! I only wish I could slip the headphones on during some of the meetings I've had lately. It'd sole a similar set of problems.
...when peer-to-peer is outlawed, only outlaws will have peers. At least, non-government-sanctioned peers.